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How to keep L2s separate? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| rodarmor Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5582 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English*, Swedish | Message 1 of 12 20 January 2010 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi all!
I'm starting to learn Spanish, after having learned Swedish while on exchange last year. I can already feel myself starting to blend in a little Swedish with my Spanish, and vice versa. Does anybody have any tips for keeping multiple target languages separate? Thanks! Best, Casey 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TheBiscuit Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5925 days ago 532 posts - 619 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Italian Studies: German, Croatian | Message 2 of 12 20 January 2010 at 8:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think it's perfectly natural. Maybe as you're used to using Swedish, it's more the habit that's interfering than anything else. When I use French more consistently here, my Spanish will interfere for a while then fade away.
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| zooplah Diglot Senior Member United States zooplah.farvista.net Joined 6370 days ago 100 posts - 116 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: German | Message 3 of 12 20 January 2010 at 11:59pm | IP Logged | ||
That's odd, especially since they're not even that close. People thought I'd probably get confused by studying Spanish since I already knew Esperanto, but the languages are significantly different, especially in structure. Maybe it's the structural differences that make them so easy to separate. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5497 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 4 of 12 21 January 2010 at 12:02am | IP Logged | ||
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Study them in different environments and times. For example, I am taking Spanish as a
university course, so I study it mostly at school and occasionally homework assignments in the evening. On the other hand, I am teaching myself Italian. This is usually done on the weekend or at night, and I try to avoid studying one right after the other. Also keep in mind the sound or look of the words . You should be able to realise most times before anything is said that Spanish words don't look nor sound anything like Swedish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6705 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 12 21 January 2010 at 12:43am | IP Logged | ||
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Just learn some more. Right now you fill out holes in one language with items from the other, but the better you know each of them the less holes there will be, and hence less risk of interference.
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| John Smith Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6044 days ago 396 posts - 542 votes Speaks: English*, Czech*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 6 of 12 21 January 2010 at 12:52am | IP Logged | ||
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The two languages are completely different so I find it very strange that you are mixing them. It's possible you are picking up another language too soon.
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| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6785 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 7 of 12 21 January 2010 at 2:04am | IP Logged | ||
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If Swedish is L2, then Spanish is L3. Or vice versa.
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| Quabazaa Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5611 days ago 414 posts - 543 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Japanese, Korean, Maori, Scottish Gaelic, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written) | Message 8 of 12 21 January 2010 at 2:04am | IP Logged | ||
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I was having this problem, my stronger language is Spanish and weaker is German. Surprisingly by speaking Spanish more often and every day, it somehow prevented Spanish words from interrupting my German as much. That sort of surprised me because I thought I would have needed to practise speaking in my weaker language to make that kind of progress. I thought that improving my strong language would only make it stronger and the words would come through in Spanish more, rather than German.
I didn't learn any more German vocab during the period everything seemed to improve, so I can't put it down to German progress (I was on holiday and not speaking or learning more German at the time) so it's a bit of a mystery! Perhaps as well as filling in holes in your vocab, it also hinges on your brain separating the two languages, and being able to create a fluid stream of words in at least one of those languages. So based on my own experience I would suggest that you could try to speak more in Swedish than you have been before, and see if it helps you like it did me. Obviously keep studying Spanish and trying to speak more fluidly with it as well, but since your Swedish is presumably already more fluid perhaps it takes less time/effort to make a noticeable difference..?? Another thing I've been trying is to practise saying a whole sentence in one language, and then try to switch and say another whole sentence in the other, without mixing the two. Or if you have been speaking in one language, see what happens when you are asked a question in the other. Actually that's how I noticed that I had improved, because I realised that now in German class my Spanish-speaking friend can ask me a question in Spanish, and I can reply in Spanish, and go back to speaking German much MUCH easier than before without getting mixed up. Before the holidays if someone asked me a question in Spanish I would get totally confused and not be able to speak either language because it was like they were fighting for dominance in my brain. After speaking almost the whole 2 week holiday in Spanish, the problem seemed to almost disappear. So yeah, well that's just what worked for me :) 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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